He found the post lifeless and academic; he vivified and
galvanised it and made it a vital branch of party life and dispute. It
is the Lloyd George way.
Here you find the first big evidence of one of the great Lloyd George
qualities that has stood him in such good stead these recent turbulent
years. He became, like Henry Clay, the Great Conciliator. The whole
widespread labour and industrial fabric of Great Britain was geared up
to his desk. It shook with unrest and was studded with strife. Much of
this clash subsided when Lloyd George came into office because he had
the peculiar knack of bringing groups of contending interests together.
Men learned then, as they found out later, that when they went into
conference with Lloyd George they might as well leave their convictions
outside the door with their hats and umbrellas.
To this policy of readjustment he also brought the laurel of
constructive legislation. To him England owes the famous Patents Bill
which gives English labour a share in the English manufacture of all
foreign invention; the Merchant Shipping Bill which safeguards the
interest of English sailor and shipper; and the Port of London Bill
which made the British metropolis immune from foreign ship menace.
England was fast learning to lean on the grey-eyed Welshman. He came to
be known as the "Government Mascot": he was continually pulling his
party's chestnuts out of the fire of failure or folly.
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